IMITATION GIRL (2017)

Studio:      Dread Central Presents
Director:    Natasha Kermani
Writer:      Natasha Kermani
Producer:  Forrest McClain
Stars:     Lauren Ashley Carter, Neimah Djourabchi, Adam David Thompson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Stefanie Woodburn, Sanam Erfani, Kevin O’Rourke, Brian Morvant, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Lewis Black

Review Score:

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Summary:

A cosmic event inexplicably creates a curious doppelganger of a young woman struggling to come to terms with her life.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

After buying alcohol from two teens at an abandoned gas station, a young boy bikes into the desert alone. When a cosmic hole suddenly opens up in the sky, the boy flees in fright, dropping a magazine with adult film actress Julianna Fox on the cover.

Something from space strikes the ground. Black ooze seeps all over the magazine. The ooze materializes into a doppelganger of Julianna who has the confusion and curiosity of a child. The imitation stumbles down the road, observes a dead cow, and cuts her palm on barbed wire.

In the city, the real Julianna shoots a scene for her latest porno movie. Afterward, Julianna goes with her costar Brian Buzzcut to the bar where her drug-dealing boyfriend Max works. Max initiates passionless sex with Julianna in the bathroom.

The imitation uses a rock to chase off a stray dog so that she can eat food from the trash. The imitation vomits black ooze.

Julianna sells drugs to her costar Margueritte. At home, Julianna realizes Max lacks ambition when he dismisses her suggestion about opening his own bar.

The imitation eats food left out on the counter inside a café. The café’s Iranian owner Saghi views the confused woman compassionately and takes her home to clean her up.

Julianna has lunch with her friend Shygirl. Mrs. Dorothy Phan, Julianna’s former piano teacher, recognizes Julianna in the diner and remembers her as noted pianist Richard Harrison’s daughter. Julianna accepts Mrs. Phan’s unexpected invitation to audition for a conservatory entrance competition.

Saghi leaves the imitation with his sister Khahar for the day. Khahar teaches the imitation how to use the bathroom, cook, dress, and apply makeup. The imitation rapidly learns to speak Farsi and has a conversation with Khahar about both of them being strangers who left their homes.

Julianna begins practicing piano for the audition. She also shoots a scene with Brian for the porno movie.

Julianna snorts cocaine while clubbing with Shygirl. Julianna sees the imitation staring back at her in a bathroom mirror, but attributes the vision to her state of mind. Julianna ends up meeting a woman named Karen and bringing her home.

The imitation goes to see Saghi at his café. After the imitation tells him about her desire to travel, Saghi offers her whiskey. The imitation ends up kissing Saghi seductively.

Julianna wakes up with Karen in her bed. Karen tells Julianna that she wants to see her again.

Saghi reads the imitation a story and tells her about his childhood struggles in Tehran. The imitation returns home with Saghi and they go to bed together.

Karen returns to see Julianna. Karen finds Julianna’s drug stash and dumps it in the toilet. Julianna flies into a rage and kicks Karen out of her apartment.

Max and Julianna have an uncomfortable meeting with Lew, the drug supplier Max works for, about the flushed cocaine. Julianna apologizes to Max for what happened. Max walks away.

The imitation returns to the desert for a walkabout. Julianna cuts her finger while doing dishes.

Julianna shows up late for the conservatory audition. Julianna disappoints herself and Mrs. Phan by botching her performance.

Julianna has an emotional breakdown about her career path in her dressing room at work. Porn film director Larry calms Julianna down and convinces her to come back to the set.

The imitation sees Julianna’s movie while watching TV. The imitation takes Saghi’s money and sneaks out in the night. Saghi and Khahar find the imitation missing the next morning.

The imitation goes to the city to meet Julianna. The imitation speaks to Julianna cryptically about humans being strange, unique people. Julianna recognizes her doppelganger from the mirror. The imitation asks if Julianna wants to see what is on the other side of the looking glass.

The imitation mentions her body growing weak and lays down to rest. Julianna goes to sleep beside her.

When she wakes, Julianna finds the imitation melting back into black ooze. Julianna sinks into the ooze and disappears into the cosmic ether on the other side.

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Review:

I’m normally not prone to over-thinking review scores, as they’re often arbitrary anyway. But “Imitation Girl” causes me to consider what criteria should influence a grade, specifically in this somewhat confounding circumstance.

“Imitation Girl’s” stream of consciousness philosophizing in film fable form doesn’t strike any personally appealing chords. More to the point, I don’t “get” the movie’s metaphoric message. However, I assume it has one hiding somewhere in its ambling assembly of montage musings, introspective interludes, and quiet scenes of character study. So do I paint an unfavorable picture because the movie uncoupled my interest early and never sought to reattach it? Or do I presume the film’s artistic merit might more readily reveal itself to an objectively engaged mind?

In other words, do I rate a movie for myself or for an imaginary median of average moviegoers? And how do I know those two perspectives don’t yield the same number?

Roger Ebert, who wrote of his own challenges with equating a star system to a binary thumb, said he skewed his ratings higher because he preferred swaying someone to see a movie s/he ultimately disliked as opposed to dissuading someone from seeing a film s/he would have enjoyed. With that idea in mind, I’m rating “Imitation Girl” down the middle because if the film laid an egg atop a steepled roof, I have no idea which side it would roll down.

That analogy makes about as much sense as the movie. Since I can’t completely determine what to critique, the only avenue I see toward making this review useful is to essentially describe the film matter of factly. Maybe you can make more out of “Imitation Girl’s” intentions than I could and come up with a conclusion on your own.

After a cosmic prologue, “Imitation Girl” opens on a static wide shot of an abandoned gas station. For a full 90 seconds, a boy bikes up to a post and waits for two other teens to arrive in their car. For another 90 seconds, the trio brokers a deal whereby the boy buys some booze out of the car’s trunk.

Cut to the boy biking into the desert. Over the following two minutes, the boy pops a squat, takes a swig, and settles in to thumb through a magazine with adult film actress Julianna Fox on the cover.

A hole in the sky suddenly interrupts pubescent private time. Something shoots from outer space onto the ground, sending the kid scurrying for safety. Black ooze rolls across the magazine cover and from the muck materializes a clone of Julianna. With both the curiosity and confusion of a vulnerable child, this titular alien stumbles down the road, observing an animal carcass and feeling pain for the first time upon touching a barbed wire fence.

What does “Imitation Girl” set up by spending seven of these ten minutes with a character never seen again? Certainly nothing related to narrative. Writer/director Natasha Kermani seemingly intends only to calibrate her patiently plotted tone, which unequivocally establishes “Imitation Girl” as a meanderingly meditative mumblecore movie.

With that out of the way, Julianna proper at last makes an appearance. She’s a lost girl navigating a strange world less literally. Days are spent passionlessly acting in pornography. Nights are occupied by a passionless relationship with an unambitious bartender boyfriend. And if Julianna isn’t helping him sell drugs on the side, she is snorting the coke for herself to numb plentiful interior pain.

Both women are desperate for an authentic interpersonal connection, but the imitation finds one first. Instead of calling police (“why would we call the police?” he asks to address the elephant question without actually explaining), Iranian expatriate Saghi “adopts” the disheveled doppelganger who initially doesn’t speak a word. Saghi’s sister Khahar helps him teach the imitation everything from how to use the bathroom to how to prepare food. With her efforts to understand humanity expanding while Julianna’s own identity contracts, the original and the copy are put on a path where their similarities and differences are destined to intersect and reflect.

What that reflection reveals is where the movie loses its emotionally intellectualized footing. Thinking that filmmaker Natasha Kermani aims to provoke ponderings through mood that I missed unconsciously, I backtracked after end credits to consciously look for parallels potentially put into play. I didn’t find any clues to make the movie’s meaning clearer.

It’s 50/50 if the two plotlines are even thematically concurrent or rubber-banding their arcs opposite of each other. For instance, the imitation cuts herself near the beginning while Julianna cuts herself near the end. Except the imitation pricks her palm and Juliana slices her finger, so if respective experiences are somehow mirroring each other, I don’t know what the takeaway says.

Given the handheld camera, actors out of Mickey Keating’s stable, and arthouse auteur flavor, “Imitation Girl” needs only a Larry Fessenden producer credit to complete the New York genre indie checklist. That’s not a judgment, just another straight statement to describe how the film feels.

I’m too cowardly to conclude “Imitation Girl” puts on a pretentious appearance of being deeply insightful without putting tangibility into its dreamlike texture. Yet no matter how hard I poke at a cutaway of dirt swirling down a shower drain, I can’t concoct sensible conjecture regarding why Kermani makes the choices she does.

Again, I’ll simply surrender that maybe the movie is over my head. And maybe you’ll have a captivating experience where I could not. I’d say circle back after and throw me a rope should this be the case, although the reality is, I’m unlikely to remember much of anything about “Imitation Girl” by then.

Review Score: 50

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